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Canadian Military Will Pay For SRS
Contributed by Jami Ward, Elizabeth Parker and Rachelle Austin
via Reuters
September 2, 1998
OTTAWA -- In Canad's integrated armed forces, soldiers can now train with,
share quarters with, and even become members of the opposite sex.
Canada's Defense Department confirmed on Wednesday the military has
agreed to pay for sex-change operations after a request was granted to one
of its soldiers.
"Our decision was based on our assessment of whether someone who had
had (gender reassignment) surgery could serve in the military. The advice
we got from the specialists we consulted was that once somebody had been
successfully treated, they should not be restricted from any military
duties," Colonel Scott Cameron, director of medical services for the
military, told Reuters.
Canadian Defense Minister Art
Eggleton approved payment through the Department's medical plan for gender
reassignment surgery. Senior
medical and personnel officers recommended the payment, likely to run C$20
- $30,000, and the Department felt it should follow the model of Ontario's
provincial health plan, which in the last six years has expended a total
of some C$700,000 for 46 gender reassignments. Opposition Members of
Parliament would have preferred the soldier resign and undergo the surgery
as a civilian.
TS Pilot Wins Big Judgement
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via PA News
September 2, 1998
A transsexual pilot was today awarded more than 77,000 pounds by an
industrial tribunal which ruled that an air company had unfairly
sexually discriminated against her. Kristina Sheffield, 52, of Ealing,
west London, won her legal battle against Air Foyle, which is based at
Luton Airport, Bedfordshire, in July. Today a three-strong industrial
tribunal sitting at Bedford ruled that Miss Sheffield should be awarded
14,000 for injury to feelings and 62,000 for loss of potential
earnings.
Miss Sheffield, a grandmother, who was born a man named Ian Sheffield,
had argued that Air Foyle was guilty of sex discrimination because it
refused her a job interview because she was a transsexual.
She had applied for a job as a pilot with EasyJet, which is also based
at Luton. Air Foyle was handling the recruitment process on behalf of
EasyJet and as a result was the target for Miss Sheffield's complaint.
Miss Sheffield, a former RAF and Britannia pilot who has 32 years of
flying experience, contended that she was suitably qualified and
capable of being an EasyJet pilot and should have been given an
interview. Air Foyle had denied discrimination and argued that other
pilots found Miss Sheffield difficult to work with because she flaunted
her sexuality. The tribunal ruled in favour of Miss Sheffield in July
after a hearing in Bedford in April.
Mexican TG Booted From Canada
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Toronto Sun
September 1, 1998
A transsexual awaiting sex-change surgery was deported to Mexico a day
after the Federal Court of Canada rejected his bid to stay.
Screaming
and sobbing, Luis Ezequiel Manzo Chavez, 26, also known as "Shadmith,"
was escorted in handcuffs to a flight last Thursday night at Pearson
Airport. Immigration spokesman Sue Dobrin said yesterday Chavez was
deported without escort to her homeland. She said the court last
Wednesday dismissed Chavez's application to halt his deportation.
Chavez, an illegal immigrant, had said she would be killed if she returned to Mexico. But
Dobrin said an assessment indicated Chavez wouldn't be in danger. Mexican officials also vociferously denied that Chavez would face government harassment because she is transgender.
Chavez had been undergoing female hormone treatments for more than two
years and was about to have sex-change surgery in Britain, his friends
said. He came to Canada in November 1994 with his female lover, whom he
later married, and filed an unsuccessful refugee claim.
Saudis Raid Home Arrest TGs
Contributed by Rachelle Austin and Elizabeth Parker
via NewsPlanet
August 31, 1998
Five Pakistani transvestites have been arrested in a raid on a private
home in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, according to a local newspaper which printed
their photos. The arrests are described as part of a crackdown on illegal
immigration which has deported close to a million foreigners since
October. Less than a week before, two other transvestites were arrested in
Dahran.
In 1996, 24 Filipino foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were arrested for
homosexual acts and 23 of them were given 200 lashes each before being
deported, in a case investigated by Amnesty International. Also in 1996,
one Saudi man was beheaded for homosexual behavior and another given 200
lashes and a six-month prison term for wearing a dress to a wedding party.
Earlier this year, two Saudi men were beheaded for the kidnapping and rape
of a boy. Saudi Arabia does not have a written penal code.
Scot TGs Jailed With Women
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker and Rachelle Austin
via PA News
August 31, 1998
Legal history was made on Monday when a transsexual was sent to the
female unit of a prison to serve a sentence for embezzlement. Lawyer
Alexandra MacRae, formerly Stephen, was sentenced to 15 months at
Dundee Sheriff Court. MacRae, a former Scottish National Party
candidate and rugby prop forward, who underwent surgery in 1984, is the
first biological male in Britain to be jailed with women, it was
reported. She will be held in Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen which
houses mainly men but has a small women's wing.
MacRae, 57, was
sentenced after failing to repay 16,000 embezzled from a client at her
practice in Dundee two years ago. The court heard that she faced
physical danger irrespective of whether she served her time in a male
or a female prison. But Sheriff Brian Scoullar told MacRae that because
of the seriousness of her crime there was no alternative to a custodial
sentence.
MacRae had previously admitted embezzlement but sentence had
been deferred to allow her time to repay the money. However, she was
declared bankrupt and lost a job working with a rights agency. A
Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said the decision to send her to a
women's unit had been taken partly on medical grounds. She said: "We
had to base the decision strictly on our encounter with the person and
also from medical considerations. We were quite happy to accept that
she is a woman. "
Craiginches has three women in it and that makes the
situation a lot more manageable simply because of the numbers involved
rather than Cornton Vale (Scotland's only all-female jail). "There's
also the fact that her sentence fits in with being at Aberdeen because
she was tried in the north east and has family in the north." MacRae,
who was married to a Ghanaian woman, is the son of a Church of Scotland
minister.
Lady Di's Dresses Go On Sale
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Associated Press
September 3, 1998
FOR SALE: Eight dresses worn by Princess Diana, last week at the Mall of
America in Bloomington MN. Six were created by her favorite designer,
Catherine Walker. Proceeds will go to a summer camp for children with
AIDS.
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